The release date of the Hobbit trilogy's third film has been pushed back six
months, Warner Bros has announced.

The final installment of "The Hobbit" film trilogy will be released on 17th December, 2014, five months later than planned, Warner Bros have announced.

The Hobbit: There and Back Again had been set to debut in July 2014. It will followThe Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which came out in December 2012, and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, which reached cinemas in December 2013.

"We're excited to complete the trilogy the same way we started it, as a holiday treat for moviegoers everywhere," said Dan Fellman, president of distribution for Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc.

The Hobbit series is a prequel to J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings, which director Peter Jackson made into three Oscar-winning films about a decade ago.

The first "Hobbit" film was a blockbuster with global sales of around £700million.